Augmented Reality – Revolutionizing Medicine and Healthcare

Augmented Reality has been transforming medicine and healthcare sectors significantly. Right from improving medical training to making pharmacy benefit management more effective, this technology is all set to make a significant impact in these sectors for years to come. Experts suggest augmented reality is all set to rule the future.

Be it education, advertising or healthcare, AR promises to bring a whole new world in front of us. It, fundamentally, changes the way we interact with things & objects in our day to day lives.

When it comes to medicine and healthcare, AR can not only help save lives, it can also help healthcare organizations make their existing processes more precise and efficient. In recent years, researchers have been using this technology for helping doctors conduct surgeries more effectively, improving fitness, teaching complex subjects to medical students and much more. Let’s explore how this new technology is making a difference these sectors.

Patient education & care management
EyeDecide is one of its kind medical app, which helps educate patients in a new way. It uses the camera display for simulating the impact of specific conditions on a person’s vision. Using apps like EyeDecide, doctors can show simulation of the vision of a patient suffering from a specific condition. For instance, the app can demonstrate the impact of Cataract or AMD.

Patient care management can be improved significantly from augmented reality. Wearable devices like Google Glass can be used for registering relevant details of patients instead of manually feeding the data into system. This reduces overheads, facilitates smooth management and reduces chance of human-error.

Medical trainingTeaching anatomy, surgical procedures etc. is no easy task. However, augmented reality has an answer to facilitate medical training. AR medical applications are already being developed that allow students to have a better understanding of the human body and how it functions. For instance, while teaching body anatomy, an AR app can help overlay digital information in the form of video, audio or 3D models onto human skeletons to offer a better understanding. Similarly multimedia information can be augmented on textbooks as well.

Pharmacy Benefit Management (PBM)PBM happens to be a part of an integrated healthcare system. Augmented Reality can help make PBM more efficient. Here’s an example. Patients wearing Google Glass and having an app installed on the device can get reminders on taking drugs. The app can also offer information on drug overdose and its effects. What’s more, the app can also recommend a diet depending on a person’s health condition.

Conducting complex surgeriesWhether it is a dental or liver surgery, doctors always find it challenging to locate the root cause of a particular disease. When it comes to surgery, precision is of prime importance and AR can help surgeons become more efficient at this. Whether it is conducting a minimally invasive procedure or locating a tumor in liver, AR healthcare apps can help save lives and treat patients seamlessly.

Fitness managementAugmented reality mobile and glass apps can help improve the wellness and fitness regime too. For instance, a person wearing a smartglass can view work-out related data right around his field of vision to get details about his/her fitness instead of looking at a mobile app.

Medical/Healthcare AR apps have the power to drive significant change. With platforms such as Bevond, you can create your own customized version of an AR-focused healthcare app within few days.